The openness of government affairs should be enhanced with people at the center, State Councilor and Secretary-General of the State Council Xiao Jie said on April 2.

Xiao, who also is director of the national government affairs openness leading group, made the remarks when chairing the fourth meeting of the group, at which work reports from related departments were heard, documents reviewed and passed, and priorities for the next step mapped out.

Xiao lauded localities and departments for having done a great deal of work over the past year in releasing information about COVID-19 prevention and control, managing key administrative information, transforming functions for government affairs openness, and imposing regulations on government information disclosure.

The progress in building more robust systems and platforms, as well as laying a solid foundation for government transparency, has supported the battle against the pandemic, demonstrating the role of openness in promoting development, he said.

Xiao called for enhanced transparency throughout the exercise of powers, with a focus on information disclosure in pandemic prevention and control and annual key reform tasks.

He also urged increasing the quality of policy releases and interpretations and providing better access to administrative information.